Ampalaya con Carne

My daughter is getting to be a picky eater. Her pediatrician informed me it has something to do with hormonal changes. At times transition from childhood to pre-teens affects their diet. Their preferences change.

I want my daughter to eat her vegetables. I want to include veggies in our daily menu. It's a good thing she loves ampalaya con carne (bittergourd with beef). We haven't had this for quite some time.

Success factors for ampalaya con carne would be largely reducing the bitterness of the ampalaya. Oyster sauce is also my ally in preparing some vegetable dishes. It enhances the taste. The ampalaya slices were really crispy as they were dropped two to three minutes before I turned off the heat. The beef was really good. I did not tenderize them anymore but they're soft to the bite.

You may do the following to manage the bitterness of ampalaya:
1. Slice them.
2. Remove the seeds.
3. Scrub the slices with a generous amount of salt.
4. Soak in very hot water for a minute or two.
5. Squeeze the water from each piece.

That worked when I applied the technique.

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Tofu

My husband likes tofu as well as I do. But for a while he eats it several times a week. He asks to prepare fried tofu for our dinner. He orders them when we eat out. The tofu madness has subsided. We both don't know what came over him that he craved for tofu for a time.

Well it's a good appetizer, it's a good partner for vegetables. Pork with tofu can even serve as the main dish.


Sizzling Fried Tofu, Congo Grille
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Yellow Cab Pizza

Yellow Cab Pizza was the dark horse in the leading pizza chains in the Philippines. That was how we perceived this pizza chain when I was still in the food industry. Surprisingly, there was a steady rise in both awareness and patronage for Yellow Cab from the time it started. The trend showed they were strong in the "wants to be seen" attribute. The image, in other words, is good. People wants to be seen eating there. One would think it's a franchise of a foreign brand but it's not. It's all Filipino. Correct me if I am wrong.

I have since transferred to a different industry and have lost track of what Yellow Cab is doing as reported by our marketing unit and our marketing agency. I have not seen any aggressive expansion of the brand up to this time. Taking it slowly but surely perhaps. Looking at their website though, they already have stores outside the Philippines, one in the US and two in Qatar and three in Malaysia. I have the impression that this pizza store is doing their business strategy quietly but with immense precision. This pizza chain came to be a byword especially with the younger market, from high school to young adults. There is no tri-media advertising as far as I can remember but they are well known among pizza lovers.

The good food speaks for itself. I don't have a picture here but one of the things I love at Yellow Cab is their ice cream. Creamy! I love the chocolate flavor!

My daughter and I prefer their NY Classic pizza, all pepperoni and cheese. Crunchy and not as oily as other pizzas.


This one has a cute name, twice-baked potato halves. Full of cheese and topped with crispy bacon bits. It comes along with sour and cream cheese.


Yummy!

Have a great weekend fellow food lovers!

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Flapjacks' Halo-Halo

It's a rainy summer here in the Philippines. Storm Dante is raging in Bicol as I post this. It's been raining in Mega Manila also the past weeks but not today. It's not as hot though as the previous days.

What's best for summer, even on a rainy summer? Halo-halo. It's a sweet concoction of different fruits, beans, leche flan and purple jam. I was craving for some halo-halo. We drove around and thought of going to UP-Ayala TechnoHub and dine at Razon's. I was talked out of Razon's. We ended up in Flapjacks.

Flapjacks has halo-halo! It has slices of grapes, peaches, ripe mango, corn, pineapple, apple and jelly. I can't remember exactly but it costs around P145. It's expensive. The taste is just fine. I'm looking for the creaminess of Razon's halo-halo. Call it odd but I don't like so many things in my halo-halo. I like it with lots of milk, leche flan and purple jam. Banana and mangoes are fine too. I can do away with beans.

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Jack's Loft

Jack's Loft is always full whenever we go to Eastwood. I never had a chance to dine there and check for myself how delicious the cakes are. Friends always tell me I have to try their cakes.

There were not much people around at lunch time at their branch at The Block so my daughter and I decided to have lunch there. We had a pretty good seat near the counter area.

As usual, the chicken fingers is a must. I am impressed because they have a very even breading for all the pieces served to us. They're crispy and still hot even after almost thirty minutes on our table.


Instead of rice to go with her chicken fingers, she ordered a pasta favorite, classic carbonara. It's creamy and there was a generous portion of bacon.


I chose beef stroganoff which was a good decision. Their very tender and juicy. I love its creaminess. Delicious!


Now comes the dessert. I ordered decadent chocolate cake as I was craving for some caramel and chocolate. The presentation is great, very appetizing. But I cannot rave about it. It's a chocolate cake. I don't know if my taste buds on lunch time is any different at any other time of the day. It's good but not great as I was told by many. Worth the money still since it can be shared by two. It costs around P120.00.


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